Today, various application development tools have been introduced to facilitate in the development and maintenance of mobile software applications. For example, SAP® (Walldorf, Germany) has developed one such enterprise mobility platform, known as SMP (SAP Mobile Platform). As a platform, SMP may manage the entire life cycle of mobile applications for an enterprise, including application development, application deployment, application execution, application management, and mobile device management. In addition, such mobility platforms enable business analysts and developers to quickly develop and deploy mobile applications with specific business objectives and functionality.
In light of the ever increasing concern for data and device security, a variety of authentication measures may be utilized for communications between client and server devices. For example, a default authentication may be based upon a username and password combination entered on a login screen of a mobile application on a mobile device. In some instances, a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate may be used to ensure that the client device is authorized and trusted.
For some mobile applications, conventional authentication measures may be insufficient. For example, an administrator may desire additional types of authentication on a deployed mobile application's security profile.
Existing application development tools fail to enable mobile application developers to provide flexible authentication mechanisms. Accordingly, the inventors have identified a need for an improved system and method for authenticating mechanisms between a remote device and an application server.